to wish that parents would send their children with water bottles etc

Children are hot and thirsty with this lovely weather and yet parents are sending them to school with no water bottles, no sun hats and without suncream. 2/30 had a sunhat today and only about 10 had water bottles.

We have the opposite problem in our nursery they wont allow suncream as the nursery staff can't apply it. Sunhats get taken off on arrival and they won't let the children take water bottles as they have a fountain.

Really annoys me as DD then plays out in the sun all afternoon with litte protection.

DS has water all day but similar rules apply re suncream and hats in his school too.

We had to sign a form giving permission for someone to apply sunscreen to DS, and I send a bottle in every day with his bag but nobody has ever helped him apply it. He's four and (almost) a quarter, so not really up to applying it properly himself.

I also send him in wearing a hat, which nobody seems to remind the children to wear because when I go to pick him up I can see them all outside without them. Usually they are hanging on pegs as we go in the door.

We bought some sports bottles to refill with tap water, and he takes one in every day. Usually it's still full when he comes out, because they keep the bottles inside while they play out and when they do come back in, they can only go for a drink if nobody else is at the refreshment table. The refreshment table is out of sight of the main classroom. I think they just forget they've even got a drink with them most of the time.

It was the same in the winter. Parents were told we must provide waterproofs and woolies to be kept at school. So that meant a full set of jacket, trousers, wellingtons, winter hat, scarf and gloves kept at school all the time and they couldn't be worn home and brought back the next day.

Parents were warned that if they didn't provide all of this by a certain date that the school would provide a set and charge parents for them. And it was almost £50 for the full set of things, which is a lot of money for most families at this school.

Not once has DS worn the waterproofs. I know because I never saw him wearing them when I went to pick him up and they were still playing outside, he often came home with soaking wet feet and the bottoms of his trouser legs soaked from playing in the wet playground and, when they gave the waterproofs back to us this week before term ends, they were still clipped together by those plastic things that hold price tags on.

We do practice DS doing up zips, putting on shoes and boots himself etc, but those trousers in particular are not easy to put on over normal clothes, pull down properly over wellies and button up at the bottom of the legs to keep them tight and stop water getting in. Especially for children who had only just turned three as they were starting in September.

He's also been practicing rubbing in his own sunscreen, but I don't trust him to apply it all properly without either missing bits and still burning or covering himself and everything else in far too much of it.

And I think it's a bit much to expect children of 3-4 years old to put on their own sunscreen properly or remember it and ask for help with it (which nobody seems to have time to give anyway), or to go off in search of drinks, remember hats every single time or manage difficult zips and buttons on bulky waterproofs while bundled up in scarves, gloves and wellies as well.

I realise I've turned a bit ranty about this but it's one thing to say parents are not sending children in properly protected but another to know you are doing everything the school ask but these very young children are just not being helped to use all this stuff if they need it.

I've bought some all day suncream now and put it on DS before we go to school in the morning. Even then though, I think you are meant to reapply 15 minutes after sun exposure so I just have to hope they are using the other cream in his bag. Which he says they're not.

I can understand why some parents might not be sending things that don't get used anyway, even though I personally would rather send it with him and hope DS remembers for himself and gets help if he needs it.

"Mummy says you have to give me a hat" - Y3 child to class teacher - overheard as I was dropping my friend's daughter off and handing a letter to teacher to say I was allowed to collect."Oh, why's that? Have you lost yours" - class teacher."No mum can't be bothered, so she said you'd give me one""one from where?""I dunno, she said you'd just have to get me one"

I do know the family in passing and they are not that strapped to afford one, and no crisis I know of, but obviously I can't judge why the child had no hat from home. Spoke to my daughter, who is elsewhere in the school about it (as she heard it too) as we walked to her door. "Oh yes, X (child's older sibling) says mums says if school want them to wear hats they should buy give them to us.

Secondary school here. Hats not allowed, water bottles not allowed in classrooms and not enough time to access lockers at breaks so no drinks then or reapplying sunscreen. Jumpers and/or blazers must be worn till given permission to remove in lesson ( must be back on by end of lesson). The school also bans hats gloves and scarves or sensible footwear in winter and coats have to be in lockers again.

In contrast my toddler knows to keep her hat on, always has a water bottle with her and is milk white from literally bathing in sunscreen everyday.

DD not school age but I do find this all bizarre on a number of levels. If I was expected to sit at my desk at work with only access to water once every three hours, I would be up in arms - but it's fine for children? Riiight. And just because something was done in the 70s and 80s hardly makes it the right thing to do. Isn't school meant to be about education - what about educating children about taking precautions in hot weather?

The poster who said they're nursery wasn't allowed to apply cream - DD's nursery ask for £2.50 at the beginning of each summer so they buy in the cream, and you sign a consent form. If your child has to have a certain cream, you put it in their bag. Works a treat. Fail to understand why any nursery wouldn't do this. Again, educating children about taking care in hot/sunny weather.

DS1 and DS2 are creamed up before they go, with their sun hats. Also put their water bottles in the freezer the night before so they slowly melt but at least they have a nice cold drink for a little while. They can refill at school as and when. DS1 also gets offered drinks through the day anyway.

DD1 leaves her water bottle at school in the week and refils it herself. Though some days she forgets to drink it or says they don't have time to drink it! I did send her with extra water this week just in case. We forgot a hat and suncream today as they were in a different bag from yesterday's school trip. But as they get to play out for all for 2 x 15 minutes I'm not particularly concerned, I brought it after school for when they went to the park.

Actually,we are still reaping the harvest of skin cancers developed in those who were children of the 60s & 70s. I am one. Fair skinned and frequently burned as a child

I never burned as a child despite only having at the most factor 4 on, and never any suncream at school.

We are also reaping the harvest of vitamin D deficiency. There needs to be a balance.

I put sunscreen on the DCs in the morning (3 and 6yo), they wear hats to school and use them when they go outside (both schools have spare if they need them although I make sure they always have theirs), and both bring a water bottle that's been partially filled with water and frozen, then filled up with water in the morning. DS1 (6yo) takes a second water bottle that's filled and frozen with him, as he really struggles with the heat.

DS won't wear a hat even when he has one... today he came out of school with " I must take a hat in mummy...." but I know he won't bloody wear the thing.... He has all day sunscreen on and I assume quite capable of getting a drink from a tap/water fountain.... well at least he is at home... Even if I gave him a bottle it would need refilling 3-4 times... so I think the issue is access to water and time/availability of getting it really

She always has a school cap in her bag, afaik never wears it! But it is there, she chooses not to.

Always has a water bottle. Assume she fills it up and drinks as required.

Never takes sun cream. She wears once a day type cream so doesn't need to.

However, I do work in an infant school and it does surprise me how many children sadly come to school without the basics, especially when it comes down to weather appropriate clothes - for snow, rain or sun.

since when did sunhats become a moral issue? my dc don't wear them, they've had and lost numerous. I think we are outside so much that they have built up a tolerance to the sun. Yes, we put cream on but hats? no. If you are milk bottle white you no doubt need to be more careful. As for water bottles, they have taps and water fountains in UK schools last time I looked.

yy to vitamin D fillyit's like diets - first carbs are the devil, then healthy, then the devil againstrike a balance that is right for your family, use your common sense and for pete's sake chill out that superiority complex

The trouble we have is that we don't want to prevent a thirsty child from having water. So, they bring no water bottle and we then need to scout round for a cup for them to fill up from the water fountain. This then has no lid, they take some sips and leave it then it gets spilled. Or we can't find any cups and have to send someone to look - lots of messing about in lesson time.

Thinking about it, DS has been a lot better about wearing his hat since we had a short wait in a hospital waiting room for an eye test.

Their must have been a skin clinic running as well because there were several elderly men with little round dressings on their heads. DS asked one of them if he had 'a cucumber' on his head and the man explained that he had been hurt by the sun when he was small but didn't know until now.

Since then I've been reminding DS about the 'cucumber' and he's been a lot more careful with his hat. But still, he's only four so can't be relied upon entirely.